Power generation networks aim for cost-effective collection of energy at a high enough voltage for transmission while extracting maximum power from ac sources such as wind, wave, or tidal turbine-generators or PV arrays with inverters. Conventional approaches for achieving high voltages for collection and/or transmission by such power generation networks include: parallel connection of dc or ac sources (e.g. wind turbines and converters) followed by a step-up transformer and/or converter; series connection of ac sources (e.g. in a cascaded H-bridge configuration); series connection of dc sources (e.g. wind turbines and rectifiers, or PV cells/modules); and series connection of PV cells/sub-modules and fractional converters to balance power and avoid partial shading. In the case of a series connection of ac sources, a cost-effective solution is desired that provides: (1) proper isolation of the ac sources; (2) proper control to extract maximum power when the power generated from the ac sources is different; and (3) proper fault handling.